Hatchway covers



Oct. 11, 1960 w. J. SENIOR HATCHWAY COVERS Filed Feb. 16. 1959 United States HATCHWAY COVERS William James Senior, Leamington Spa, England, assignor to Automotive Products Company Limited Leamington Spa, England Filed Feb. 16, 1959, Ser. No. 793,508

2 Claims. 01. 1'60--188)" This invention relates to hatchway covers of the kind comprising one or more-pairs of panels, each pair consisting of two panels hinged together at adjacent edges so that they can be moved from a hatch-closing position in which they lie in a common plane to a position in which they are substantially vertical with their undersides facing each other.

It has already been proposed to actuate such hatch covers for moving them from one position to the other by means of groups of two extensible and contractible actuators such as liquid-pressure ram-and-cylinder devices each acting between one of the panels and a part mounted on the axis of the hinge between the panels, but that arrangement did not always prove satisfactory in operation, and the object of the present invention is to provide an improved arrangement of the actuating mechanism.

According to the invention a hatchway cover of the one end to one of the panels and the other actuator of the group being pivotally connected at one end to the other panel, is characterised in that the other ends of the :said actuators are both pivotally connected to a part which is itself pivotally connected to one of the panels to turn about an axis parallel to butoifset from the hinge axis between the said panels.

The part pivotally connected to one of the panels may be T-shaped, the two actuators being connected one to each end of the head portion thereof, and the said part being connected to the said one panel at the end of its stem portion.

The invention is hereinafter described with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

Figure 1 is a diagrammatic plan view of a hatchway cover comprising a pair of panels and embodying the present invention, parts of the panels being broken away;

Figure 2 is a partial side elevation of the hatchway cover shown in Figure 1 with the panels in a common plane;

and

.a depending rim 12 set in from the edge of the said top,

the lower edge of the said rim being adapted to rest, when the cover is closed, on a sealing strip in the frame to provide a water-tight closure.

The panel is hinged to the deck framing of the -vessel along one end of the hatchway opening with which it is associated, as indicated at 13 in Figure 2, and the -two panels 10 and 11 are hirigedly-connected together at 14, 14 by two co-axial hinge pins 15 passing through "overlapping brackets fixed to the undersides of the panels. As can be seen in Figure 2, the axis of the hinge pins lies Patented Oct. 11, 1960 "ice The panel 10 has mounted on it, adjacent each side edge, bracket members 16 to support pivot pins 17 which, as shown in Figure 2, are ofiset from the axis of the hinge pins 15, the axes of both the-hinge pins 15 and the pivot pins 17 lying in a common plane parallel to the surfaces of the panel 10. On each pivot pin 17 there is mounted a T-shaped part 18, the pivot pin 17 passing through the end of the stem portion of the said T-shaped part, and to each end of the head portion of the said part there is pivotally coupled, by a pivot pin 19, one of two liquid-pressure ram-and-cylinder devices 21, 22. The ram-and-cylinder device 21 is pivotally coupled at its other end to the panel 10, and the ram-and-cylinder device 22 is pivotally coupled at its other end to the panel 11, both ram-and-cylinder devices lying within the depth of the rims 12.

The head portion of the T-shaped part 18 is not symmetrical about its stem portion, but is longer on one side than on the other so that, as shown in Figure 2, the ends of the two ram-and-cylinder devices which are pivoted to the said part 18 are substantially equidistant from the axis of the hinge between the two panels.

' When the hatchway cover is in the position shown in Figure 2, pressure fluid supplied to the ram-and-cylinder devices 21 to extend them tends to turn the T-shaped parts 18 about the pivot pins17, and pressure fluid supplied to the ram-and-cylinder devices 22 tends to move the second panel 11 about the hinge pins 15. The combined extension of the two pairs of ram-and-cylinder devices 21, 22 therefore tends to fold the panels together until they reach the position shown in Figure 3, the edges of the said panels which are hinged together rising upwardly, and the free end of the panel 11 sliding towards the hinge 13.

The ram-and-cylinder devices 21, 22 may be replaced by actuators of other types, such as screw jacks operated by electric motors, and the parts interposed between the said actuators, instead of being T-shaped, may be triangular or of any other suitable shape. The direction in which the pivot pins 17 are offset from the hinge pins 15 may be different from that described, any radial direction from the hinge pins- 15 being suitable. The two actuators may have strokes of difierent lengths, and it may be found advantageous to allow one of them to come into operation before the other to initiate the folding movement.

A hatchway may be provided with two pairs of panels as herein described, the first panels of the two pairs being hinged at opposite ends of the hatchway opening, or a second pair of panels may be connected to the first pair by a further hinge.

The offsetting of the pivot pins 17 from the axis of the hinge pins 15 produces an arrangement in which the power available from the ram-and-cylinder devices follows a curve more closely conforming to the actual curve of power required to open the cover than is the case when the pivots are co-axial, so that suflicient power can be produced with cylinders of smaller dimensions.

The olfsetting of these axes also facilitates the complete enclosure of the actuating mechanism within the hatch covers, which is of considerable value in connection with insulated hatch covers for refrigerated ships.

I claim:

1. A hatchway cover comprising a first and a second juxtaposed panel, each having a flat top and a lower de pending rim, pivot means mounting an edge of said first panel to the hatchway, hinge means between the juxtaposed edges of said panels and having a hinge axis lying in a plane below said lower depending rim and parallel thereto, to thereby provide an axis for holding said panels in a parallel vertical poistion to open the hatchway, said hinge means spaced inwardly from the side edges of said panels, said first panel having a bracket member fixed thereto adjacent each side edge thereof, a pivot pin mounted on each of said bracket member having a pivot axis ofiset from the hinge axis of said hinge means with the axes of said hinge means and said pivot pins lying in a common plane parallel to the surface of said flat top, a T-shaped member mounted on said pivot pin with said pin passing through the end of the stem portion of said T-shaped member, a first and second actuating means pivotally coupled one to each end of the head portion of said T-shaped member, said first actuating means pivotally coupled at the other end to said first:

panel, said second actuating means pivotally coupled at the other end to said second panel, so that the actuating: means lie between said flat top and said lower depending;

L second actuating means :pivotally coupled to the ends. of the head portion of said T-shaped member are sub substantially equidistant-from the hinge axis of said hinge:

means. 7

References Cited :in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 

